Prologue

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Alaric sat on his throne of twisted glass and broken bones, a raven perched on his shoulder, pecking gently at the soft dark ringlet curls that fell down to the nape of his neck looking for the insects that would occasionally crawl over his master. His hand swatted lazily at a golden globe on his left-hand side, small red dots plastering it throughout the continents. He tapped one gently, as if he was tapping a small child's nose, and it died out as easily as a flame.

He looked up lazily at the woman standing in front of him, her shaking and wet.

"Welcome back, love." His voice echoed through the room with a voice as ancient as the language the trees used to speak. "Now tell me, where is your daughter?"

"No, you can't have her, not her." The woman took a step back as if she still had a body, as if she wasn't made of mist instead of flesh. Her right foot passed through a browning and delicate human skull instead of crushing it. "Anything but her. Please. Anything!"

"A deal is a deal, and you must have known at some point I would have asked for the child I promised back. Adonis cannot keep her safe forever, stupid boy. Now tell me, where is, what is her name again? Poppy?" Alaric swatted at his globe, making it spin a little faster, his fingertips grazing over a small country in Africa, igniting a famine that would last through the decade.

"You can't have her" She screeched, trying desperately to move her now clunky frame, flesh again with a wave of Alaric's hand, he sighed and signaled to his bird.

"You chose this." His voice echoed once again as the screams pierced through the ancient cavern and fresh blood splattered on the sacrificial floor like raindrops. 

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